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NieR: Automata |OT| "I wouldn't expect too much from this game if I were you."

I think I'm screwed and can't finish the game ...

I'm fighting this short haired robot guy. Everyone in the resistance camp is dead and I don't have any healing items left. And I don't have a save file before the mission started so there is no one around to sell some items. I'm literally screwed.

If you have Auto-Heal chips equip those and be defensive

At least you have all that money to make you feel better :)

In my first playthrough of route A I somehow just never thought about selling stuff till towards the end and I instantly made like $700k.

Woody-Harrelson-Cry.gif
 

brinstar

Member
I finished Route A and I feel like I missed a lot of stuff. I didn't even realize I started the ending until it was too late. But I'm guessing a lot of the plot threads won't be explored until other routes.
 
So I think I finished am I right that Path E
only amounts to the cutscene shmup game, and the pod cutscene with 2B/9S/A2 being put back together?
 

OniBaka

Member
I had like 50+ machine cores at the end of my trophy hunting and sold them all for final shopping purposes

Had like $800,000+ lol

I was doing the100% fishing data and by the end of it I got like 1.5mil, it was long and was mainly doing it via remote play on vita while reading other stuff.
 
Just started route C.

Ended up enjoying route B more than I thought I would.
Got pretty into hacking, and the story revelations at the end of the run are nice. Still, feels good to control 2B again w/ some of my better pod programs and chips.
Assuming some surprising stuff is coming down the pike....
 
So I think I finished am I right that Path E
only amounts to the cutscene shmup game, and the pod cutscene with 2B/9S/A2 being put back together?

I take it you weren't one of us tearing up during most of that sequence?
That's probably the most reductive I've seen anyone ever write it but I guess you are right. :)
 
I was doing the100% fishing data and by the end of it I got like 1.5mil, it was long and was mainly doing it via remote play on vita while reading other stuff.
I didn't even do the trophies 100% legit but I'm glad it was an option
In total I think I skipped pods, information, fishing, weapon upgrades, destroying 50 enemies through remote control

Even doing all I did was still 40+ hours, I wanted to put in the work to complete as much as possible but not so much to completely burn myself on the game. I'm sure I missed out on a few cool things but it's not worth just getting to the point where I never want to play again lol. That happened with Bloodborne where I did NG+ and the DLC, had to grind to make up the level difference. Between that and Challice Dungeon material farming I just got sick of it and never even completed the DLC
 
I take it you weren't one of us tearing up during most of that sequence?
That's probably the most reductive I've seen anyone ever write it but I guess you are right. :)

I mean I found the end of C fucking amazing, but for whatever reason expected E
to have gameplay other than a 20 minute halfbaked shmup section
 

Astral

Member
I only have all the optional endings to go through before I'm done with the game and I'm so sad about it. I don't want it to end.
 

Freeman76

Member
Amazing game. Finished it 3 times and now Im struggling to know what to do re cleaning up, the way the side missions are indicated in chapter select is so confusing. Tried to buy some trophies but they are not available to me, I have 400k but all are red and wont let me buy. Will come back to the game in a few weeks, very close to beating Nioh for GOTY so far for me.
 

True Fire

Member
I mean I found the end of C fucking amazing, but for whatever reason expected E
to have gameplay other than a 20 minute halfbaked shmup section

The route/ending terminology is confusing. There's
3
routes and
26
endings, and we refer to them all as "routes" for some reason. But Route
3 leads to endings C, D, and E
 

Mailbox

Member
I mean I found the end of C fucking amazing, but for whatever reason expected E
to have gameplay other than a 20 minute halfbaked shmup section

Its meant to
be a complete bookend to all the themes of the game and as a interesting take on 2B's starting speech. Its hardly "halfbaked". The whole point is that you are fighting against the "gods" (read: developers) in order to give the androids another chance in a new war cycle. That's why fighting Square Enix LLC and Business Division VI are the hardest parts.

The part about gaining help and letting other help you in your struggle is purely thematic,
as is the selfless sacrifice at the end.

But I guess that goes over some people's heads :p

What was the point of Adam and Eve? Even after ending E they feel like awful undeveloped villans

They aren't meant to be "normal" villains.
Basically if we talk about them as characters in a vacuum, you might be right.
But, they aren't. They exist as an extension of the themes presented throughout routes A and B. Much like the orgy, the carnival, the opera singer, the twisted religion, pascal's village, and even Yorha itself, Adam and Eve aren't "Villains" but rather theme devices.

They have more depth than people realize, since they basically exist as 2 halves of a whole representing the idea of "hate" as one of humanities "gifts". One represents hate in wrt the intellectual. Purely mechanical hatred; curiosity. The other represents the emotion aspect of hate. Purely emotional hatred; love lost.

The moment you stop thinking of them as "villain characters" and think of them as greater concepts behind the machine network is when you see their greater depth.

We can also see that fight in 9s' memories as an extension of them too. Since that fight is basically a mishmash of adam and eve, but its really 2B in 9S's memories. Its about 9S perverting his memories of his love for 2B into one of pure hatred; what adam and eve represent. 9S has basically become an embodiment of both emotional (love lost) hatred and intellectual ("the machines exist really don't have anything more to them") hatred
 
The route/ending terminology is confusing. There's
3
routes and
26
endings, and we refer to them all as "routes" for some reason. But Route
3 leads to endings C, D, and E
I understand all that, I'm not sure why you think otherwise?
Its meant to
be a complete bookend to all the themes of the game and as a interesting take on 2B's starting speech. Its hardly "halfbaked". The whole point is that you are fighting against the "gods" (read: developers) in order to give the androids another chance in a new war cycle. That's why fighting Square Enix LLC and Business Division VI are the hardest parts.

The part about gaining help and letting other help you in your struggle is purely thematic,
as is the selfless sacrifice at the end.

But I guess that goes over some people's heads :p
That's all fine and dandy but
a 20 minute poorly designed shmup section is a terrible ending to an absolutely fantastic game.

to Don Friday as well, I don't have issues with the themes therein. I have issues with the way the player interacts with it.
 
I mean I found the end of C fucking amazing, but for whatever reason expected E
to have gameplay other than a 20 minute halfbaked shmup section

While the cutscene is short and the section before it is not gameplay of the year, a lot of us got more context and symbolism out of that whole sequence.
The shmup sequence is you fighting against the figurative and literal ending of the game. You are stopping the credits from rolling. You are also doing what 2B mentions at the beginning of the game, you are "killing the gods that created them", the developers. Then you reach the point were it becomes incredibly difficult and you keep dying and seeing the messages from other players and are being asked to give up over and over again by the game. Until you accept help, then you are joined by other players (who you later realized sacrificed their save data for you) and the chorus starts up at the same time and if you are invested it can be a very emotional event. Then there is the cutscene itself where you see the main characters being given a sliver of hope.
Please know I'm not trying to shame you or anything if you didn't get any of that from it, just know that's why a lot of us are blubbering about it.

That's this game in a nutshell. It's not the flashiest game* but a lot of meaning is packed into every morsel. Like all the sidequests, they aren't that exciting to execute but the conclusions usually offer more meaning than most games, even if the context isn't there immediately. (*edit: took out the phrase "low production" because that's not what I meant at all)

Edit: It's also kind of another Yoko Taro staple, having a bizarre ending sequence to cap off the final ending of his games. You should look up the last "boss fights" of Drakengard 1 and 3.
 

True Fire

Member
I understand all that, I'm not sure why you think otherwise?

That's all fine and dandy but
a 20 minute poorly designed shmup section is a terrible ending to an absolutely fantastic game.

But you don't understand it.
Ending E is an epilogue. It's not meant to be a route with gameplay, it's just a thematic bookend to the game. The ending of the game is the end of Route C.
 
Equip an Auto-heal chip? They should prevent you from dying pretty handily any time your health gets low, and you should have plenty of healing items on hand at that point. If not, just blow a few thousand at the next shop. Money should not be a concern at this point.

Can Auto-Heal help during the actual little
hacking mini-games
themselves? I didn't think I ever noticed any difference. I thought it was three hits and you're booted back out of the
hack
. Otherwise, healing isn't an issue in the aftermath, it's just how repetitive it go through so many chests in a row. I do feel embarrassed that in retrospect I only had three chests left before I flipped it to Easy, but I was so over it!

Great plot revels, though. weeeeeeee

(I'm just spoiler tagging in case, probably don't need to by this point. Half-assed spoiler tags, too, ha.)
 
But you don't understand it.
Ending E is an epilogue. It's not meant to be a route with gameplay, it's just a thematic bookend to the game. The ending of the game is the end of Route C.
Yeah, I understand that /now/. I did not expect it after
The cutscene with 2B's sword at the end of C, the somewhat ambiguous end to D, and the praise people had given it. I know exactly what it's designed to be, I know exactly what the themes therein are and why they're relevant to the story. I would rather it was done in a way other than the worst single gameplay segment in the entire game followed by a short cutscene.
 
Okay, Route B is fucking cool so far.

I remember wondering why 9S even bothered to mention the whole thing was being recorded. Guess I know now!

Speaking of which, I think I ran into a glitch regarding above. The cursor started bugging out during that portion and wouldn't let me proceed. I thought it was some international Taro craziness going onnat first, but nope. Now I have to start from the beginning again. Fuck.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Yeah, I understand that /now/. I did not expect it after
The cutscene with 2B's sword at the end of C, the somewhat ambiguous end to D, and the praise people had given it. I know exactly what it's designed to be, I know exactly what the themes therein are and why they're relevant to the story. I would rather it was done in a way other than the worst single gameplay segment in the entire game followed by a short cutscene.

Well you're in the minority there. :p

Sorry it didn't resonate with you though. >.<
 

Totori Helmeow

Neo Member
They aren't meant to be "normal" villains.
Basically if we talk about them as characters in a vacuum, you might be right.
But, they aren't. They exist as an extension of the themes presented throughout routes A and B. Much like the orgy, the carnival, the opera singer, the twisted religion, pascal's village, and even Yorha itself, Adam and Eve aren't "Villains" but rather theme devices.

They have more depth than people realize, since they basically exist as 2 halves of a whole representing the idea of "hate" as one of humanities "gifts". One represents hate in wrt the intellectual. Purely mechanical hatred; curiosity. The other represents the emotion aspect of hate. Purely emotional hatred; love lost.

The moment you stop thinking of them as "villain characters" and think of them as greater concepts behind the machine network is when you see their greater depth.

We can also see that fight in 9s' memories as an extension of them too. Since that fight is basically a mishmash of adam and eve, but its really 2B in 9S's memories. Its about 9S perverting his memories of his love for 2B into one of pure hatred; what adam and eve represent. 9S has basically become an embodiment of both emotional (love lost) hatred and intellectual ("the machines exist really don't have anything more to them") hatred

That...actually makes a lot more sense. Thank you.
 

Moonkid

Member
I believe A2 was mostly covered in the play that Yoko Taro did, previous to the release of NieR.

Haven't watched it though...At most we know if it as Pearl Harbor
Lol I was close to adding in a disclaimer that I don't care for content outside of the game. As far as Nier: Automata goes, not the entire franchise, A2 is somewhat unsatisfactory.
 
So now that I have finished and am about to start a brand new playthrough, I just want to say that this is my favorite game of all time. I am 31 years old and I just played what I believe gave me the best experience I have ever had with a game. I could point to the combat, movement, story, characters, "enemy", whatever. Everything in this game I love. Super Mario World, you had a good run. To #2 you go!
 

Ruff

Member
the protagonist is named "2B" (to be), and "9S" (Nein ist, German for "is not"), and "A2" (et tu, as in Caesar's famous last words, "et tu, Brute?").

Ha, I knew the 2B thing but the other ones eluded me.
 
So now that I have finished and am about to start a brand new playthrough, I just want to say that this is my favorite game of all time. I am 31 years old and I just played what I believe gave me the best experience I have ever had with a game. I could point to the combat, movement, story, characters, "enemy", whatever. Everything in this game I love. Super Mario World, you had a good run. To #2 you go!

33 year old here. For the complete package I might agree with you. The gameplay is fun, the soundtrack and how it scores the game is phenomenal, the writing is tight and packed with meaning, it's definitely the most thought provoking game I can remember playing. In terms of games as a story telling medium it's definitely #1, in front of Yoko Taro's other games and the Metal Gear series.
I think in terms of gameplay systems I have a handful that beat it but if we were to weigh all things equal Automata is quite the contender.
Not that it matters ultimately, but curious to see how it does in people's GoTYs. I almost wish it didn't come out the same year as Yakuza 0, Horizon, Zelda and Persona 5. I want it to have as much of the spotlight as possible and for the world to be exposed to it. But the reviews were solid and I'm hearing a lot of games media talk highly of it.
 

Dartastic

Member
33 year old here. For the complete package I might agree with you. The gameplay is fun, the soundtrack and how it scores the game is phenomenal, the writing is tight and packed with meaning, it's definitely the most thought provoking game I can remember playing. In terms of games a story telling medium it's definitely #1, in front of Yoko Taro's other games and the Metal Gear series.
I think in terms of gameplay systems I have a handful that beat it but if we were to weigh all things equal Automata is quite the contender.
Not that it matters ultimately, but curious to see how it does in people's GoTYs. I almost wish it didn't come out the same year as Yakuza 0, Horizon, Zelda and Persona 5. I want it to have as much of the spotlight as possible and for the world to be exposed to it. But the reviews were solid and I'm hearing a lot of games media talk highly of it.
That's interesting. I'm about 8 hours into route A (I just finished the
religious area where they all go nuts in the factory and you have to escape
and I'm finding the combat far simpler than basically every platinum game, the stuttering distracting as hell, and the occasional frustrating areas (seriously I went around that above area like three or four times before I figured out where to go) annoying as hell. The plot seems interesting so far though, and the music is phenomenal.

Frankly, where I'm at I think it's kinda been overrated if anything. It's good, but not great and the jank is really distracting. How far in am I?
 

Jiraiza

Member
That's interesting. I'm about 8 hours into route A (I just finished the
religious area where they all go nuts in the factory and you have to escape
and I'm finding the combat far simpler than basically every platinum game, the stuttering distracting as hell, and the occasional frustrating areas (seriously I went around that above area like three or four times before I figured out where to go) annoying as hell. The plot seems interesting so far though, and the music is phenomenal.

Frankly, where I'm at I think it's kinda been overrated if anything. It's good, but not great and the jank is really distracting. How far in am I?

Come back after you get to Route C. If that doesn't get you hooked, burn the game box and wait for Persona 5, I guess.
 

Dartastic

Member
Come back after you get to Route C. If that doesn't get you hooked, burn the game box and wait for Persona 5, I guess.
I definitely plan to keep playing. About how long does it take to get to Route C? And how far through Route A do you think I am? I definitely don't think that the game is BAD and I do like it, I'm just not feeling it as much as everyone else seems to be. I want it to be a little deeper, especially in combat.
 

KLoWn

Member
What the hell? I just loaded my last save since I couldn't find the chapter selct menu, and it puts me back before the last boss area?? So it somehow reverted my save? What bullshit...
 
I definitely plan to keep playing. About how long does it take to get to Route C? And how far through Route A do you think I am? I definitely don't think that the game is BAD and I do like it, I'm just not feeling it as much as everyone else seems to be. I want it to be a little deeper, especially in combat.
You're very close to beating route A. Route B rehashes a lot of A, but was substantially quicker imo
 

Mailbox

Member
I definitely plan to keep playing. About how long does it take to get to Route C? And how far through Route A do you think I am? I definitely don't think that the game is BAD and I do like it, I'm just not feeling it as much as everyone else seems to be. I want it to be a little deeper, especially in combat.

Let me put it this way, Route A is the low point for most. Its pretext, don't think of it as a complete normal game route, its not designed like that.

Everyone started feeling the game when they clued into what route B was doing and when route C started.
 

Jiraiza

Member
I definitely plan to keep playing. About how long does it take to get to Route C? And how far through Route A do you think I am? I definitely don't think that the game is BAD and I do like it, I'm just not feeling it as much as everyone else seems to be. I want it to be a little deeper, especially in combat.

You're not feeling it because you're only in route A. The combat I can agree, particularly the encounters, but you don't have to worry about the story missing expectations, assuming you empathize with the themes the game is trying to present to you as a player (and as a human).

You're near the end of route A, though.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Okay, Route B is fucking cool so far.

I remember wondering why 9S even bothered to mention the whole thing was being recorded. Guess I know now!

Speaking of which, I think I ran into a glitch regarding above. The cursor started bugging out during that portion and wouldn't let me proceed. I thought it was some international Taro craziness going onnat first, but nope. Now I have to start from the beginning again. Fuck.

I don't understand
You can't control the cursor during that part, that's the point
 

Dartastic

Member
Let me put it this way, Route A is the low point for most. Its pretext, don't think of it as a complete normal game route, its not designed like that.

Everyone started feeling the game when they clued into what route B was doing and when route C started.

You're not feeling it because you're only in route A. The combat I can agree, particularly the encounters, but you don't have to worry about the story missing expectations, assuming you empathize with the themes the game is trying to present to you as a player (and as a human).

You're near the end of route A, though.
Okay, cool. Thanks for the heads up! I'm glad to know I'm nearing the end so I can see what else this game is offering. About how many hours do you think if I'm just mainlining it?
 
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